This invention relates to water craft, and more particularly to a safety device for requiring operation of the bilge blower of a power boat for a predetermined interval before the engine can be started.
Gasoline powered boats having inboard engines are almost universally equipped with bilge blowers for exhausting potentially explosive gasoline vapors from the engine compartment before the engine is started.
Numerous prior art safety interlocks require operation of the bilge blower before the engine may be started, or disable the engine if circumstances indicate an unsafe condition in the bilge atmosphere, or both. However, many of these include complicated mechanical interlocks which are expensive to manufacture, install, and maintain.
Other devices include electrical and/or electronic circuits to require that certain delay and/or environmental conditions be met before the engine may be started. Again, however, these circuits are generally quite complicated, unduly expensive, and in many cases poorly adapted for easy installation in boats which have already been manufactured.